The present invention relates generally to mine clearing devices incorporating unbiased motion, more particularly to a mine clearing device comprising a blast-resistant body and having a plurality of projections to impart unbiased motion to the device.
There are, currently, millions of land mines remaining on the ground from past wars and scattered around dozens of countries, most of which are poor, undeveloped countries with limited resources. Most of these mines are anti-personnel mines that maim rather than kill their victims. It has recently been estimated that over seventy people, mostly civilians, are injured by mines every day and that over five million new mines are manufactured and laid each year with very little expense. Detection and clearing of these mines is a difficult problem. The most common techniques include either walking through an area with a metal detector or slowly and laboriously probing the ground manually to physically feel a buried mine, hopefully without detonating it. Unfortunately, these methods are extremely time-consuming and dangerous to the personnel involved. What is needed is a simple, safe and inexpensive system to find and detonate mines in a manner that can be mass produced and distributed in very large numbers and that can be easily used by uneducated and unsophisticated users with minimal logistical support or resources.
Recent technology solutions have focused on the increasing use of unmanned systems to locate and detonate land mines. Also, previously known mine clearing devices include devices that are attached to vehicles and set off mines and absorb the blast as the vehicle travels through the minefield. However, these devices, although effective at clearing mines, are too expensive, too complex, and too cumbersome to deploy affordably in effective numbers throughout the world.